Data Centers Raise Concerns About Water
It seems that Georgia is becoming the place that data centers are looking to locate to. While there are benefits to the centers, there are also some cons and one of those issues could be water. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), the tapping into fresh water sources by the centers could put nearby communities at risk. According to an article released by the EESI in June 2025, a medium-sized data center can consume up to roughly 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling purposes, equivalent to the annual water usage of approximately 1,000 households. Larger data centers can each “drink” up to 5 million gallons per day, or about 1.8 billion annually, usage equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
